New interests and mental activities can help keep the brain healthy
make even more di�cult decisions .
“ If someone is asking ‘ when ’ s mom coming home ’, one could certainly begin with the truth [ and see if that works to satisfy them ],” he said . “ But if the truth becomes a source of great distress , I think one begins to ask oneself what is behind the question they are asking , and maybe the answer to that is not that mom is dead but , ‘ if mom were here what would you do with her ?’ That ’ s not in any way correcting them or demanding that they accept their mother is dead , but it ’ s just getting at the heart of what it is that they miss about their mother , whether she ’ s alive or dead we can still talk about what we miss about her .”
Current research promises better treatment Despite the limited therapeutic results in current Alzheimer ’ s care and treatment , the hope is that significant progress might be in the making .
One promising line of research posits that in�ammation , which is a normal and short-term immune response the body uses to clear infections , might contribute to Alzheimer ’ s when the process becomes chronic or continues for a long time . Indeed , a study published in Nature Medicine last year suggests the activation of brain immune cells may be part of the pathological process leading to the condition .
“ Many elderly people have amyloid plaques in their brains but never progress to developing Alzheimer ’ s disease ,” said Dr Tharick Pascoal , the study ’ s corresponding author , in a press release . “ We know that amyloid accumulation on its own is not enough to cause dementia — our results suggest that it is the interaction between neuroin�ammation and amyloid pathology that unleashes tau propagation and eventually leads to widespread brain damage and cognitive impairment .”
If these results hold up , anti-in�ammatory therapies could one day help manage the condition in its early stages , though they might have to be administered in combination with other drugs , such as those that clear amyloid plaques .
This research along with other experimental approaches make Dr Karlawish optimistic about the chances of slowing the loss of cognition and disability associated with Alzheimer ’ s and dementia . “ I am cautiously hopeful about the future , and I think we should expect that these will be treatable diseases in the next five to �0 years� , similarly to many forms of cancer and heart disease .
He cautions , however , that the idea that we ’ ll be able to cure Alzheimer ’ s and all causes of dementia is “ an exaggerated wild hope .” More likely , we ’ ll probably just have to learn to live with them in the same way we ’ ve learned to live with cancer and heart disease , despite significant progress in the way we treat them . n
“ Many elderly people have amyloid plaques in their brains but never progress to developing Alzheimer ’ s disease .”
GlobalHealthAsiaPacific . com SEPTEMBER 2022
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